This weekend, the legendary New York DJ Danny Tenaglia will play in front of tens of thousands of raging dance-music fans at the Electric Zoo Festival on Randalls Island. But it’s a far cry from his humble beginnings, DJing backrooms in bars in Williamsburg, where he grew up.
“I got my first gig DJing at a place called the Miami Lounge [which is now a Mexican restaurant called Casa Pública] right by McCarren Park,” Tenaglia tells The Post. At the time, he was 17 years old and had to be chaperoned by his older brothers to play between 9 p.m and 1 a.m., but even they couldn’t stop young Danny from seeing things meant for adult eyes.
“There was a fire department down the street, and they’d hire the backroom out for their bachelor parties. They’d get some girls in to dance. There’d be some nudity and things like that, and I would be watching this all happen. I remember thinking, ‘I’m too young for this! If my mother and father knew this was going on, I’d never be able to come back here again.’ ”
Thankfully, they remained blissfully ignorant, and Tenaglia — who was born and raised on Metropolitan Avenue in the heart of Williamsburg — went on to become a big name in American house music. After leaving New York for Miami in 1985, he established himself as a major DJ before returning home and holding long residencies at famous ’90s nightclubs such as Twilo and the Tunnel. Along the way, he also produced his own work, and did remixes for the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson and Grace Jones.
Tenaglia, 56, now lives in Astoria but still returns to Williamsburg regularly to visit the two of his four brothers who live in the area. While many decry the area’s changes and rapid gentrification, Tenaglia admits that Williamsburg’s thriving nightlife has, in part at least, been helpful to his career.
“What’s crazy is that just a stone’s throw from where I started at the Miami Lounge is Output, which is now the club I play the most,” Tenaglia says. “The reason I love it is because it’s more about the music, and less about the glitz and LED screens and lasers.”
And they take a very dim view of bachelor parties bringing in strippers, too.